How Rare and Beautiful
by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz
Summary: A grown up Sara Diggle enters a timeline where she doesn't exist. (Inspired by a thought that crossed me after the uproar following the Flash 3x02)


**Written after hearing about what happened on Flash 3x02 because it made me hella bitter and I needed to do something.**

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" _How rare and beautiful it is to even exist" – Saturn, Sleeping At Last_

"Who the hell are you?"

Sara Diggle whirled around from the dusty cabinet that had once held board games, but was now the owner to moldy boxes in the now abandoned house. On the opposite end of the room was someone dressed like Uncle Ollie's Green Arrow suit. They held a bow with an arrow nocked and aimed at her chest. Sara flicked out one of her batons, ready to use it or her Canary Cry if needed. She had no idea who this person was, but after all the hell she and her friends had encountered on the streets of Star City in this time, she had to be prepared to fight.

"I'd ask you the same question," she responded, taking a step forward. "Along with what you're doing in my parent's home?"

The hooded archer stiffened. "This is not the home of your parents."

"Funny thing about that, it actually is," Sara replied. "Maybe not anymore in whatever time this is, but there was a time when Lyla and John Diggle lived here. And I should know, given I'm their daughter."

"That's impossible!" the archer growled in his modulated voice.

"Why's that?"

The archer lowered his bow. Then he reached up and pressed something on the inside of his hood.

"Because I'm their son," he said, pulling the hood back to reveal a familiar face. "And I have never had a sister."

Sara stared at the face of her brother and replaced her baton, speechless. It had been two months since she had last seen her little brother. When she had left to go time travelling with Jonas and Evan and the others, John had decided not to join. He wanted to focus on getting through the rest of college first. She could still remember telling him goodbye as he jokingly told her to bring him a souvenir from her travels. Now, here he was, standing in front of her, staring at her as if he'd never seen her before.

"John?" she finally whispered. "What are you talking about?"

"How do you know my name?" John demanded, bringing the bow back up again.

"Because I'm your sister," Sara shouted, taking another step forward.

Something crunched underneath her foot. When Sara moved her foot aside, she found herself staring at the cracked surface of a picture frame. The young woman bent down and lifted it up to get a better look at the picture it held. The photo it held was similar to one she knew her parents had in their house. It had been taken on John's seventh birthday. The whole family had been together, surrounding the birthday boy and his cake. Sara had been to the right of him in the photo she knew. In this one, she was nowhere to be seen. There was no awkward pre-teen with braces, just Mom, Dad, and John.

"What the hell…" she uttered, looking up at her brother. "What did you do to this? John, what's happening?"

"Look, lady, I don't know who you are," John sneered. "But I'm about to put an arrow in you if you don't tell me why you actually are and what you're doing here."

They must have messed up the timeline. That was the best conclusion Sara could come to at the moment. Somehow, they must have done something that caused her to no long exist. Mom and Dad never had her, meaning John never knew her. Now she couldn't help but wonder if she was the only one erased? With what they had done, did Evan exist? Were the twins born in this timeline? Did Monica's parents get the chance to even meet each other and both stay alive? Could Jonas be dead in the future without being saved?

At that moment, her earpiece came to life with Evan Queen's voice. "Sara, we figured out what happened."

"Did we screw up the timeline?" she asked, wondering how long it would take for her to disappear if that was the case.

"Well, that's the thing. Remember when the time pirates were after us and Monica had to pull all that fancy flying?"

In the background, Sara heard the snarky (and slightly colorful) reply of their pilot about how they weren't dead or captured. She winced a little at the memory of how she'd nearly lost her lunch earlier. "Go on."

"Somehow, she flew us into a completely different timeline."

So they hadn't messed up the timeline. They were just in a different one. "Is there any way we can get back?"

"Jonas and Monica are almost done with the repairs, and I have a theory of how to get us out," Evan explained. "Just get back to the ship so we can get out of here."

"On my way," Sara replied with a nod before looking over at John. He seemed confused, his bow down again.

"I know you don't know me here," she said. "But stay say. Please."

"Why do you care?" he asked. "Tell me who you are!"

"Here?" Sara shook her head and set the picture frame on the cabinet. "I'm something that never was."

She left the room, walking around her puzzled brother and out the door she'd come in.

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After they piloted back to their own timeline where everyone aboard the timeship existed, Sara curled up in her bunk. The empty look in her brother's eyes when he pointed an arrow at her haunted her. That John wasn't truly her brother, but it still hurt her. There was a timeline (and potentially more) where she didn't exist. Hell, there were probably multiple timelines where the people she was surrounded with didn't exist. She didn't really like thinking about those.

From then on, no matter how dark and hopeless things got, Sara was grateful for the timeline allowing her existence, and the existence of the people she cared about.

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 **Hope you all enjoyed this!**


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